NEI Nuclear Notes

Tom Kauffman Last night, Fox News picked up a report from Russia Today concerning  a leak in the spent fuel pool at Fukushima Daiichi Unit Five . Fukushima operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) was forced to switch off the cooling system at Reactor Unit 5, after engineers discovered it had been leaking water. If the system is not repaired within the next nine days, temperatures are expected to soar, Russian news site RT reported Sunday. As our readers might recall, our go to guy on Fukushima and spent fuel is Tom Kauffman, a former reactor operator from Three Mile Island. Here's what he wrote to me after I shared the Fox News link with him: The used fuel has cooled to the point that even if all the water was lost, radiation levels would increase due to a loss of shielding, but there’s no way the fuel produces enough heat to damage itself let alone incinerate. A good rule of thumb: Even in a densely packed fuel pool, 107 days after fresh used fuel is placed in the...

We Stand for Energy is a very promising attempt to link energy and electricity advocates, professionals, students and other interested parties into a social network centered around energy policy. Along with the web site, there is a Facebook page and Twitter (@WeStand4Energy) presence. This is the list of interests : We’re Americans from all walks of life who believe our nation’s energy policies MUST: Help support and create local jobs Keep our local communities and economy growing Spur the development of new, innovative technologies Ensure electricity remains reliable, affordable, and increasingly clean Provide a secure energy future for everyone Protect consumers and ensure everyone is treated fairly These are clearly meant as a starting point and will likely develop over time as it become clearer where the members’ interests lie. Obviously, it would be good to establish nuclear energy as having a valid claim on those statements, and a little less obvi...

In a story about new nuclear technologies at Fortune, Mark Halper makes a formulation that defines what seems a, shall we say, critical mass in the nuclear energy business : A host of startups are experimenting with different approaches including the use of liquid fuel, the use of solid fuel with different shapes (such as bricks or pebbles), and the use of alternative coolants and moderators such as salts and gases. Many of the designs draw on ideas that politics suppressed decades ago. Some, like Bill Gates-chaired TerraPower in Bellevue, Wash., are designing “fast reactors” that don’t moderate neutrons. Some envision using the element thorium instead of uranium. Between them, they portend leaps in safety, cut way down on nuclear waste, use “waste” as fuel, minimize weapons proliferation risks, slash costs and tremendously boost efficiencies. Many fit the “small modular” form that enables mass production and affordable incremental power. (Oregon startup NuScale Power recentl...

Charles Casto The latest addition to our understanding of the lessons in leadership from the Fukushima experience of 2011 comes from Charles Casto .  Mr. Casto spent almost a year as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's senior liaison in Japan after the Fukushima accident.  This role gave him an extraordinary opportunity to learn from the people involved in the accident response.  Mr. Casto recounts many of his insights in an article in the Harvard Business Review, July-August 2014 issue, and in an HBR podcast accompanying the article.  Naohiro Masuda The article focuses on the crisis leadership of  Naohiro Masuda , superintendent of the Fukushima Daini site, and his contribution to saving Daini from the reactor meltdowns that occurred at the sister plant, Fukushima Daiichi .  Mr. Casto and co-authors Ranjay Gulati and Charlotte Krontiris, highlight Masuda-san's technique for "sense-making" in the midst of uncertai...

Notice anything about the green bars in the graphic at right?  What caught our eye was the huge bar for "Nuclear power tech" in Texas.  So what's the story?  Is everything bigger in Texas? The graphic appeared in the Wall Street Journal on June 24 in an article on the value of two-year and four-year college degrees.  Authors Mark Peters and Douglas Belkin cited recent studies by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the American Institutes for Research .  The green bar that caught our eye is based on data presented in the AIR report.  It shows the first-year earnings of graduates of Associate's degree programs in nuclear technology in Texas as averaging more than $98,000.  The report is not clear about the specific jobs tied to the reported first-year earnings by nuclear technology graduates in Texas.  (There are two nuclear power plants in Texas : Comanche Peak in Glen Rose , and South Texas Project in Bay City , offering thousands ...

The Atlantic has an article called Is Nuclear Energy Ever Coming Back?. Aside from the fact that five new reactors are opening before the turn of the decade, the question seems a bit moot, but writer Celeste Lecompe does an exceptionally good job looking at subject wholly – I mean, with the Union of Concerned Scientists and NEI in the mix. We may take some pleasure in how much like sourpusses UCS seems, but it’s a fair look at different views. And Lecompte give due to new developments, such as small reactors and Transatomic’s revived interest in molten salt. A taste: In the meantime, TerraPower, the Bill Gates-backed startup, has opted to focus its attention abroad. “There are plenty of countries or regions that really are looking to nuclear as one of the ways to solve their energy needs without putting more carbon into the environment,” said Kevin Weaver, TerraPower’s director for technology integration. TerraPower is exploring opportunities to deploy its reactor design in R...

Tomorrow afternoon at 1:00 P.M., Gov. Christie Todd Whitman, Co-Chair of the CASEnergy Coalition , will be participating in a live Twitter chat concerning nuclear energy's role in helping states comply with EPA's new carbon regulations. To follow the chat in real time, click here to see all of the questions and answers. If you’d like to submit a question to Gov. Whitman, you can do so via Twitter beginning right now. Be sure to add the #AskGovCTW hashtag in order to make sure that the folks at CASEnergy see the question. Topic : Nuclear Energy’s Role in New EPA Carbon Regulations Host : CASEnergy Coalition Co-Chair Governor Christine Todd Whitman, former EPA Administrator Handle : @CASEnergy Hashtag : #AskGovCTW Date/Time : Thursday, June 26 from 1-1:30 P.M. (accepting questions now)